Position

Professor
Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics
Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Prof McIntosh is a pharmaceutical scientist with an international reputation in the fields of pulmonary delivery and global health. Her research is aimed at improving drug delivery systems with an emphasis on translational research projects aiming to improve patient healthcare outcomes.

Michelle completed her undergraduate and PhD studies at Monash University before moving in 1999 to the University of Kansas, Center for Drug Delivery Research. In 2006 she returned to Monash University to continue her research at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Drug Delivery, Disposition and Dynamics.

Michelle’s research has focused on improving access to life saving medications in the developing world by developing a novel aerosol delivery system for oxytocin. In 2015 this research was recognised by the Saving Lives at Birth program as the innovation most likely to be transformational in maternal and neonatal healthcare. In 2017 Michelle was co-awarded the John Dixon Hughes Medal for Medical Research Innovation and in 2014 was acknowledged at the highest level of the University when she was awarded the Vice-Chancellor’s award for Excellence in Research Impact (Economic and Social Impact). In 2013 Michelle and her team received the Australian Innovation Challenge award.

Other current research areas, include

• the development of a medicinal cannabis formulation for the treatment of paediatric patients suffering from intractable epilepsy;
• investigations into the targeted delivery of antibiotics in the treatment of respiratory infections; and
• the evaluation of modified cyclodextrins as formulation excipients to enhance drug solubility and stability.

Michelle has served on a WHO expert panel on the use of uterotonics in developing countries (2011) and was a member of a technical advisory group focused on innovations for the UN Commission on Life Saving Commodities for Women and Children (2013–2014).

Since 2014 Michelle has been the founding Director of the HMSTrust Laboratory, an open access analytical laboratory at Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences. She is also the Director of the newly formed Medicines Manufacturing Innovation Centre (MMIC) which is a joint initiative of the Victorian State Government, Monash University and industry partners to advance manufacturing innovations in Victorian based pharmaceutical and allied industries. Through both the HMSTrust Laboratory and the MMIC, she maintains a strong focus on cultivating the next generation talent by providing opportunities for emerging scientist to develop highly valued specialist skills. To date her research activities have attracted over $15,000,000 in government, industry and philanthropic grants.

In 2015 Michelle became the Course Director of the Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Monash’s Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and in 2016 she and her team received a Vice Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.

• Course Director, Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Science
• PSC2041 (Biopharmaceutics) lecturer in pharmacokinetics, drug absorption, drug delivery, drug dissolution
• PAC2232 (Drug Delivery) lecturer in pharmacokinetics, drug absorption, bioequivalence